'METH WATCH' AN EXAMPLE FOR CANADA

MAPLE RIDGE: The City Identified The Drug As The Source Of Many Ills

In the fight against the menace of crystal methamphetamine, one B.C.
community is being touted as an example for the entire country to follow.

The 73,000 people of Maple Ridge, led by their local Rotary Club, have
embarked on a multi-pronged approach to battling the drug and the social
havoc it wreaks.

The statistics they gathered were alarming:

- - A majority of the town's homeless people were addicted to the drug;

- - Most property crimes there were committed by meth addicts; and

- - Meth-related deaths in Maple Ridge, as recorded by the B.C. Coroners
Service, totalled three in 2004 compared to zero in the four years prior.

So the Fraser Valley town moved quickly to establish a Crystal Meth Task Force.

On Saturday, teams of volunteers will fan out across the city in a
groundbreaking bid to set up Canada's first "Meth Watch" program.

Len Garis, Surrey fire chief and a prime mover in the initiative, will
educate retailers about the products they sell that are used in the illegal
manufacturing of crystal meth.

Thousands of posters will appear in store windows, store employees will be
issued information sheets and the various chemicals, tools and other
products integral to the production of crystal methamphetamine will be
slapped with warning stickers.

Anecdotal evidence from American states that have tried a similar approach
suggests that limiting access to ingredients can reduce the amount of the
drug available on the street by as much as 25 per cent.

Municipalities across Canada will be watching Maple Ridge over the next six
months as a coalition of national retail and drug-store organizations
attempts to take the B.C. town's model countrywide.

Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Randy Hawes will also focus on Maple Ridge when he
speaks to the B.C. legislature tomorrow about the need to "recognize the
imminent danger that the crystal-methamphetamine epidemic poses to our
children and our communities."

Hawes wants the province to push Ottawa for tougher sentencing and will
urge Victoria to invest in better treatment options and help in assisting
other communities to set up their own drug-fighting networks.

Maple Ridge's Conservative MP Randy Kamp says he, too, will cite the model
when he urges Parliament to include crystal meth in the same legal category
as cocaine and heroin, thereby boosting sentences for traffickers.

The Maple Ridge initiative was born 17 months ago when hotel owners and
husband-and-wife team Gordon and Mary Robson noticed that their local
Salvation Army homeless shelter, intended as a cold- and wet-weather
sanctuary, was overcrowded every night.

At the time, some in the community were complaining the Sally Ann shelter
was attracting the homeless.

Gordon Robinson began investigating the backgrounds of the estimated 400
people living on the streets, in ravines and makeshift shelters in his
hometown.

What he learned was an eye-opener. Most were from Maple Ridge and most --
he calculates 90 per cent -- were addicted to meth.

"We don't have a homeless problem in Maple Ridge," he says. "We have a
crystal-meth problem."

Among the 400 homeless people, some 60 to 70 came from elsewhere. Their
families, and hometown support networks, were contacted and they were sent
back -- some travelling courtesy of the 500,000 air miles on Gordon
Robson's account.

Meanwhile, in July 2003, Mary Robinson met a 25-year-old pregnant, homeless
woman.

"She was unable to complete a cognitive thought process [because of meth
use]," Mary recalls. "The more research I did, I realized [crystal-meth
addiction] is not an epidemic, it's a pandemic."

Mary helped the woman get identification, medical help and access to social
assistance. The two grew close. The woman gave birth to a healthy baby
girl, named her daughter after Mary and named the Robsons the child's
godparents. She is now living near her family.

The next year, Mary took over as president of the Meadow Ridge Rotary Club,
determined to use her position to educate young people and the community
about crystal meth.

She called a community meeting for July 29, expecting a dozen people. More
than 150 showed up, among them police, representatives of health groups,
social agencies, addicts and former users.

The Maple Ridge Crystal Meth Task Force, with the slogan "Life or Meth,"
was born.

The 11 sub-committees on the task force are charged with specific tasks.

Salvation Army Capt. Kathie Chiu leads a post-treatment committee looking
at housing options for addicts and ex-users. Another committee looks at
bylaws to pressure landlords to be more responsible about what goes on in
their rental units.

A local publisher heads a public-awareness committee that plans to publish
a 16-page special insert about the drug.

And while local police are cracking down on dealers and meth labs, another
committee monitors meth cases in the courts to determine whether
punishments fit the crime.

So far, the plan is working.

Chiu reports fewer homeless people coming into the shelter: "[Homelessness
and meth addiction] is a bad problem. It's getting better."

Gordon Robson says two-thirds of the community's homeless people are now
either housed or gone, and of the 30 or so "buggy pushers," fewer than five
remain.

It's hard to say whether meth-related crime is decreasing, but Insp. Janice
Armstrong of Ridge Meadows RCMP takes it as a positive sign that at least
the word is out on the street.

For the task force members, success is a matter of pride.

"It really makes you feel good to be part of something like this,"
Armstrong says.